The story
Foundation and early years
On 1 December 1989, two businesses, Net and Silkar, partnered with Aer Lingus to create an inclusive tour charter airline called Pegasus Airlines; services were inaugurated on 15 April 1990 with two Boeing 737-400s. In Greek mythology, Pegasus (Greek: Πήγασος Pégasos, 'strong') was a winged horse sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. However, four months after the launch, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and the seven-month occupation that followed had a serious effect on Turkish tourism. By 1992, tourists began returning to the country, and Pegasus grew with the acquisition of a third 737-400. The airline leased a further two Airbus A320s to meet the summer demand.
After two positive years, Aer Lingus and Net sold their shares in the company in 1994 to Istanbul-based Yapı Kredi bank, making Pegasus a purely Turkish company.
On 4 September 1997, Pegasus placed an order for one 737-400 and one 737-800 from Boeing Commercial Airplanes, making it the first Turkish carrier to place an order for the Boeing 737 Next Generation. The airline also signed lease agreements for a further 10 737-800s from the ILFC.
In January 2005, ESAS Holdings purchased Pegasus Airlines and placed Ali Sabanci as the chairman. Two months later, he changed the airline from a charter airline to a low-cost airline. In November 2005, Pegasus placed an order for 12 new 737-800s from Boeing, which was backed up with an order for a further 12 737-800s in November 2008. The latter order had flexibility, as the orders could be changed to the 149-seat 737-700 or the 215-seat 737-900 depending on market demand. In 2018, Pegasus tried to acquire an A380, but later cancelled the order.
In 2007, Pegasus had reached a domestic market share of 15%, which grew to 27% in 2013. In 2019, it carried a total of 29.87 million passengers.
Development since 2010
In November 2011, Air Berlin and Pegasus Airlines launched Air Berlin Turkey, which was aimed at the charter market between Germany and Turkey. The new airline, however, was absorbed into Pegasus Airlines on 31 March 2013.
In 2012, Pegasus Airlines, the second-largest airline in Turkey, signed for up to 100 A320neo family aircraft, of which 75, 57 A320neos and 18 A321neos, were firm orders. Pegasus became a new Airbus customer and the first Turkish airline to order the A320neo. This was the largest single commercial aircraft order ever placed by an airline in Turkey at that time and was announced on 18 December 2012 at a ceremony attended by Binali Yıldırım, the Turkish Minister of Transport. In June 2012, Pegasus Airlines bought 49% of the Kyrgyz air company Air Manas. On 22 March 2013, the air company operated its first flight under the brand name Pegasus Asia.
The company offered 34.5% of its shares of stock to the public. The shares began to be traded at the Borsa Istanbul as BİST: PGSUS on 26 April 2013.
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In October 2016, Pegasus Airlines announced it was offering three of its aircraft on the ACMI and leasing markets, stating severely decreasing passenger numbers.
On 5 February 2020 a runway excursion would turn into the first fatal incident in the history of the airlines. After the incident some former employees from the airlines stated that the airlines would prioritize sales over safety, putting staff under pressure firing them without reasons and severance. Flights would spend little time on ground and exceed legal limits in air, performing hasty safety checks and compromising on hygiene. Former employees called the CEO's press statement on the grievance "Crocodile tears".
In August 2022, Pegasus Airlines experienced a data breach that exposed over 6.5TB of data, including a number of internal passwords and the personal information of flight crew. The breach occurred after Pegasus accidentally configured one of the Amazon S3 storage buckets used for PegasusEFB, its electronic flight bag system, to be without any security, exposing its contents to the public Internet. The breach affected Turkish Airlines and Air Manas, who also used PegasusEFB. The breach was caused by Corporate negligence and a $183,000 fine could have been imposed on the airlines by the Turkish Data Protection Authority.
The airlines ranked fifth worst for flight delays from UK airports in 2022. According to AirHelp, Pegasus airlines was ranked the sixth worst airline in 2024.
This ranking stems from the fact that the airlines is inferior to its competitors in all key parameters. Particularly long flight delays and difficulty in receiving compensation has been the major cause of inconvenience according to customers.
In March 2022 Pegasus announced that Güliz Öztürk would become chief executive officer with effect from 1 May 2022, succeeding Mehmet T. Nane, who became vice-chairperson of the board; Öztürk was the first woman to serve as CEO of an airline in Turkish civil aviation. Esas Holding has remained the airline's controlling shareholder since the flotation; H. Çağatay Özdoğru, Esas Holding's chief executive, served as vice-chairman of the Pegasus board from December 2006 to September 2022 and rejoined the board in August 2023.
Pegasus Airlines continues to operate flights to Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine and the resulting international sanctions. While most Western airlines have ceased operations in or over Russian airspace, Pegasus maintains its routes, aligning with Turkey’s close diplomatic and economic ties to Moscow. This includes contributing to government-backed efforts to support Russian tourism by allocating significant resources, such as 500,000 seats, for Russian passengers.
In December 2025, it was announced Pegasus had signed an agreement to acquire Smartwings and its parent company Czech Airlines in a deal worth €154 million.
From Wikipedia’s article on Pegasus Airlines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5